


A Change in Perspective

by EtchJetty



Series: Etch's Sketches - A One-Shot Collection [18]
Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2020-11-27 11:34:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,259
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20947661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EtchJetty/pseuds/EtchJetty
Summary: Written for Cauldron Cup Season Four, this snip explores 2081's Dockton City as Colin Wallis seeks to recruit a new member of the CDPR.





	A Change in Perspective

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the Cauldron Cup Season Four.
> 
> The prompt:  
Sci-Fi AU: Eager (Annette Hebert & Defiant)

****"DRAGON, pull up the list of the newest batch of potential recruits."

"_One moment._"

Colin Wallis sat in his parked hoverbike, fingers twitching on the handlebars. He was supposed to be off-duty right now. After the recent leaks, all on-duty officers of clearance level 4 and below were temporarily relieved of any obligations while the investigations proceeded. But he needed to be working. It just didn't feel right to him to be sitting in a MacDonwald's parking pad, waiting for them to call him back so that he could return to duty. He _knew_ he could return. He should have been at the HQ right now. But those damn higher-ups and their security redundancies made things so... _inefficient_. God. If the Central Dockton Police Department was a computer, he'd have swapped out the CPU years ago. And the motherboard. And probably the GPU, and cooling, and probably opted for a smaller, more space-efficient case, and...

Colin let out a sigh. It didn’t matter, anyway. He wasn’t even really on active duty before the COIL leaks, having been assigned to the recruiting department following a failure in the field he didn’t like to think about. And working for Central Dockton Police Recruitment was basically a dead job. Even the garbagepeople had more interesting lives; they got to fly around the city at top speed trying to pick up as many bins as possible in as little time as possible. For CDPR, all Colin had to do was review names and occasionally perform the rare interview. All in all, Colin was ready for his month of being off-duty to be over.

The DRAGON Access Point in his bike’s HUD lit up, and Colin tapped it. The screen was now filled with a list of names.

“DRAGON, anyone look promising?”

“_Analyzing._”

Colin held his breath.

“_Well, Colin, I’ve got my eyes on two specifically. One named Ellen Chua, newly moved to Central Dockton. Has relatively few ties to the city right now, so she’d be more willing to throw herself into her work. Her CPSA profile from university seems to indicate that she’d have a personality fairly compatible to yours. On the other hand, I’m not sure the CDPR budget can handle another tinkerer like you._”

This was one of Colin’s favorite parts of working for the CDPD. When DRAGON’s analysis protocols activated, something magical happened; the usual dry, robotic tone of the AI shifted into one far, far more human. Colin just wished he had a way to have the ability to chat frankly with the AI all the time.

“And the other?”

“_Well, she’s an interesting case for sure._”

“Two women in a row? DRAGON, are you biased?”

The AI actually _laughed._ It was a metallic tinkle, clearly pieced together out of voice samples that were not originally meant for laughter, but it made Colin’s skip a beat regardless. DRAGON had a sense of humor.

“_Well, I have to look out for girls like me, right? Anyway. Her name’s Annette Hebert, long ago dropout of the Dockton Police academy, and she’s recently widowed._”

A great start.

“_Husband and daughter were killed by a corp, from the Alpha Beta Business. Apparently the daughter was minding her own business and leaned against a wall, and the security outside took offense. When her dad tried to fend the guard off, security shot them both dead._”

“Christ.”

“_Mmhm. Which is why I know she’s determined enough to make it onto the force, but I’m a little worried about her emotions possibly clouding her judgement._”

“Which is something you never have any problems with.”

“_Never. I’m an AI, Colin. We have no need for such puny human things like emotions and friendship. Fear me. Mwah hah hah._”

Colin smiled, somewhat wistfully. The conversation was wrapping up, and DRAGON would revert to just being that one super useful AI that the government used. “DRAGON, can you direct me to Ms. Hebert’s current location?”

“_Locating. Good luck, Colin._”

“Thanks, DRAGON.”

No response. Colin sighed, and revved the e-engine, taking off into Central Dockton in search of one Annette Hebert.

* * *

“You’re going to let me on the force, Mr. Wallis.” The woman, Annette Hebert, waved her hand slowly as she said this.

“Mrs. Hebert, unfortunately, Jedi Mind tricks don’t work on officers of the law. Or anyone outside of the fictional setting of Star Wars. Why don't we take this interview from the beginning?"

Hebert said nothing.

Colin picked up his transcorder, stopped the recording, and started it again. "Begin interview, September 2nd, 2081. Colin Wallis is present from CDPR, interviewing potential recruit Annette Hebert née Thorburn. Mrs. Hebert, when did you decide you wanted to join the CDPD? Give a date, if you can."

Annette took a breath, and exhaled. "Just let me on the force. Please. We don't need to do this interview crap. I'm already more qualified than half your guys. I only dropped out of the academy because I wanted, needed to raise my daughter."

"Mrs. Hebert, even if you were to have stayed in police school, you would have had to go through an interview anyway. Please state for the record your reasoning for wanting to join the force," said Colin, gritting his teeth.

She crossed her arms, but said, "I wanted to avenge my family, and make sure no one else went through what I did. But you already knew that, didn't you? That... _bot_ already knows everything. I don't see the point in doing this interview." Annette uttered the word "bot" like a curse.

"For your information, Ms. Hebert, all of that could be inferred from events on the public record. As an officer of the law it is my responsibility to find out things about people we're seeking to recruit. DRAGON just helped. She didn't read your mind."

Mrs. Hebert scoffed. "It's a _she_ now. Look, we're getting off track. You need recruits. I've got cred. I know how to fire a gun. Come on, Mr. Walis! Let me go after those bastards that killed my family, that are still out there killing today!"

"It doesn't work like that."

"And why the fuck does it not?” Annette snarled. “Come on! You’ve got real criminals out there working for some of the biggest corps and nobody’s doing anything about it! You _know_ I can make a difference! Just hand me the fucking license and I’ll take down the fuckers who killed my family, who destroy other people’s families, too!”

“Listen, I know you’re excited about potentially getting to fight crime, but--”

“_Potentially?_”

“But we have laws. We have rules and regulations. And if you can’t get through this conversation without insulting one of the finest helps to the CDPD, if you can’t control your language, you can’t be a part of this team.”

Colin put his hand on his face. “I’d love to have you, really. But you’re bringing the wrong kind of energy. You seem ready to jump right in, but I’m worried that during training you’ll blow up because you’re too anxious to do anything that isn’t fighting ‘real criminals.’ And I understand that feeling, Mrs. Hebert. I wish I could go out too, but right now I’m working for the CDPR. And I have to get this interview done. Can I give you one last chance?”

Annette scoffed, then nodded. She didn’t look happy about it, but she watched as Colin stopped the transcorder, and started it again.

"Begin interview, September 2nd, 2081. Colin Wallis is present from CDPR, interviewing potential recruit Annette Hebert née Thorburn. Mrs. Hebert...”


End file.
